Daughter of the Forest
by Dragonsdaughter1
Summary: Ancient magic collides with, and threatens to upset the order of the wizarding world. Little is as it seems as the Malfoys try to wrestle with a painful secret that they would rather forget.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Harry Potter books. Anything not from the books belongs to me-please ask before borrowing. I will probably okay anything that you asked, but I do need to be asked first. However, Katerina and Tsandrin belong to me.  
  
I do not mean to offend anyone, and I did not steal the idea of forestwives from a book. It is an ancient tradition going back thousands of years and can be found under various names although I have taken the definition of their duties a bit differently than is traditional.  
  
If I accidentally step on any author's toes, please tell me so that I can give them credit. I read so much that I loose track of the origins of ideas and don't always remember whether or not it was mine originally.  
  
Note: There will be violence-possibly graphic later on and possibly a couple nonexplicit adult content scenes (I don't write smut). I will give warnings ahead of time in later chapters.  
  
Chapter one: the letter  
  
"Zan! Dinner's ready!" I yelled at the top of my voice. Hopefully she could hear me, but it wasn't likely; she had been off playing in the woods all day. Just as I turned to head back into the cottage, fifty six pounds of energy plowed into the back of my legs. "Hello imp, did you enjoy yourself?"  
  
She nodded enthusiastically. "Kitsune let her kits play just outside of the den today. She brought all of them over and dropped them in my lap so that I could admire them."  
  
"Oh really, and exactly how many are there?" I was smiling. It was Kitsune's first litter even though she was three. We had been worried when she didn't have any last year.  
  
"Six balls of fluff, they're so cute! Do you think that I might be able to take one as my familiar?" Tsandrin looked at me eagerly.  
  
"Uh…only if Kitsune approves and if one of them agrees, but you will have to wait until they're older any way. Not before the fall at least."  
  
"Thank you!" She jumped up and down before looking at me slyly. "When are you going to get your own familiar?"  
  
"I already have Midnight and Sar."  
  
"That old cat? But all he does is sit in the sun all day, besides he's *ancient*. Why don't you get a familiar that belongs to the forest like we do? He's not even a proper witch's cat, he has too much white in his fur. And Sar doesn't count-she's a snake."  
  
"Kitsune isn't a witch's cat either."  
  
"But she's a fox, and she belongs to the woods. Foxes are appropriate familiars for forestwives," Zan giggled, heading past me to sit at the table.  
  
"Not like that missy, wash your hands first. You've been playing outside all day."  
  
"Yes mother," she sighed, rolling her eyes. At least she humored me for once. She probably figured that she might not want to argue too much so soon after getting the okay to partner one of the kits.  
  
Something wavered at the edge of my awareness. Moments later, I could hear the faint ringing of the chimes that were hung on the gate. "Seems as if we have a visitor."   
  
Zan looked up in surprise. "Who is it this time? One of the Dragons? Or was someone hurt?"  
  
"Neither." I cocked my head in surprise. The Silver Dragons wouldn't have set off the chimes, and if someone was injured the chimes would have lasted longer.  
  
A minute later, there was a knocking at the cottage door. I couldn't really make out the features of the person through the leaded and stained glass but I didn't think that the person was familiar. Opening the door a crack revealed a woman dressed up in a business suit and high heels. "Can I help you ma'am?" I asked, trying not to show disdain for her choice of clothes to trudge through the woods in.  
  
"Are you Miss Katherine Winterwind?"  
  
"It's *Katerina*, not Katherine. Is there something that you need?"  
  
"Miss Winterwind, I am Marie O'Conner, the social worker assigned to your daughter." I winced at the 'Miss.'  
  
"I wasn't aware of any social worker being assigned to Tsandrin."  
  
"Do you mind if I come in?"   
  
*Of course*, but I stepped back to allow her to come in anyway. "We were just starting to eat dinner. I always make enough for visitors," I gestured to the table before getting another place setting.  
  
"Do you get visitors often?" she asked, taking a seat.  
  
"Mostly just my sister and a few of my friends from school."  
  
Ms. O'Conner raised an eyebrow expectantly. "From high school?"  
  
"A few, but a good portion went to college with me." I groaned inwardly.  
  
"I didn't realize that you went to college."  
  
That nearly made me lose it. "Ms. O'Conner, I may be a single mother but I did go to college and graduate with an engineering degree and good grades. If you are to be working with us, I would request that you do not make assumptions based on the fact that my daughter has no father. I am not a high school drop out, I have never done drugs, I did not go to parties, and I did not sleep around. The reason that Tsandrin doesn't have a father is because I can't even come up with a single name of who he might be. The only man that I slept with to my knowledge, left me fourteen months before she was born. There is a chance that I was drugged at a rare social event that I actually showed up to but I don't even remember being *invited* to any within the correct time frame. I didn't get an abortion or give Zan up for adoption because I did want a child of my own eventually and I would probably never get the chance because of a genetic disorder that runs in the family and makes it extremely hard to have children."  
  
The woman looked taken aback by my bluntness. "How could-can you expect to support her without a job?"  
  
"I managed to pay for all of my college expenses before I graduated from a book contract. Since then I have made enough to live off of comfortably and I have a sizeable amount set aside to pay for Tsandrin's college."  
  
"What exactly are you doing about her schooling? I checked with the local school who said that she had only been enrolled for two months before you pulled her out."  
  
"My sister and I homeschool her for the most part-Parvarti is a licensed teacher. Two days a week our friends bring their children that are also being homeschooled over so that they can interact and so we can teach classes like science and history to them all at once. I didn't want her in public school because she would be so much younger than all of her classmates if she was placed according to ability."  
  
The shock on the lady's face was almost enough to make me burst out laughing. When would people stop thinking that 'single mother' meant 'illiterate incompetent slut'?  
  
"Mommy! Mommy! Wake up!" Tsandrin pounced on the bed, upsetting Sar and Midnight who were curled up next to me to get warm. The two immediately started hissing at each other.  
  
"Sar, Midnight, cut it out!" I yelled. Cats and snakes were mortal enemies and it didn't matter that Sar wasn't exactly a snake. At least she was a vegetarian, otherwise I wouldn't have allowed her in the same country as my cat much less the same house. She was big enough to eat him, nearly six inches in diameter and well over ten feet long although that was purely a guess, she would never uncoil enough for me to get a decent estimate. "Zan, why can't you take one of these two to bed with you?" I sat up, spilling the two familiars onto the floor.  
  
"They're just arguing for show, they're really in love with each other," she whispered to me, just loud enough so that the white serpent could hear. Unlike snakes, Sar's hearing was excellent.  
  
Are not! Sar protested vehemently. I have my own mate thank you very much. And Zan's much too tiny to be any good at keeping me warm  
  
"Sour puss."  
  
I'm not a cat, she hissed with equal parts anger and indignation, her tail flipping back and forth. Bad move. Midnight might be over twenty but he was still a kitten when it came to moving objects. Ow! Damn cat!  
  
"If you don't want him to pounce then don't flip your tail in front of his face."  
  
It's not my fault if he chooses to pounce, she replied very miffed.  
  
"Mom! Auntie and the Silver Dragons are going to be here in less than an hour!"  
  
I groaned. Saturday morning, damn! It was all my fault for insisting that we have an eight o'clock weapons practice. "Did you collect the eggs yet?"  
  
"Yep, and I made some flat bread with rosemary and thyme that isn't burnt."  
  
"The bread or the herbs?"  
  
"Neither silly." She batted my shoulder lightly as I dumped her upside down over my shoulder, depositing her at the table that she had already set.  
  
"Thank you for taking care of breakfast, I haven't slept past dawn for quite a while." I nibbled the bread thoughtfully. "Your cooking has improved drastically, I no longer need to worry about loosing any teeth."  
  
"Mom-"  
  
"What? You can harass me but I can't harass you?"  
  
Tsandrin looked at me slyly out of the corner of her eye. "Something like that."  
  
Bells lightly rang instead of chimes and I swore under my breath. Someone had shown up early. I dove into my sleeping area and quickly traded my shift for leggings, a tunic, and a calf length skirt. I just managed to start pulling on my boots when the door opened.  
  
"Hi Kat, Zan."  
  
"Auntie!" Tsandrin pounced on my sister.   
  
"Hi Tsandrin, Aunt Kat," a dark haired girl poked her head around the doorframe. Her blond and younger sister was right behind her.  
  
"Hey Rache, Syd. Classes over yet?"  
  
"Not for another week, are you going to make it to graduation?"  
  
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." I finished tugging on the boots and wrapped the laces tightly, it wouldn't do for them to come loose in the middle of a fight.  
  
The two teenagers grabbed a hold of their cousin and dragged her outside, presumably so that Tsandrin could take them to see Kitsune and her kits.  
  
"Any alerts?" I asked as soon as they were gone.  
  
Parvarti shook her head. "But the local Wizards' Council did want us to police their Midsummer gathering. I told them that they can police their own drunken antics. We're not going to get mixed up with that foolishness."  
  
I laughed at her description. The Wizards' Council was a bunch of meddling fools. Women were rarely invited to their revels and the ones that were…let's just say that I quickly turned down the invitations that they sent me.   
  
"You three are early today."  
  
"Sydnee and Rachel stayed the night at my place and the ferry was actually on schedule for once." She shrugged. "We would have gated but the gate point needs to have the wards strengthened first. Can't have the Council on our backs for unauthorized magical travel," my sister snickered  
  
"They can stuff it about restrictions on magic. Until they start training girls to use their magic properly, they can take a flying leap for all I care."  
  
"I told them that and they said that there was no need for them to teach girls when we have a school going. Idiots, we don't have enough resources to train all of the girls that need it." Parvarti grimaced. "We can barely teach all of our own kids, and most of us are hedge-taught. Not very useful for founding a school."  
  
There was a crash and a yelp from outside. The two of us simultaneously rolled our eyes, the only ingredient that was needed for pure mayhem, other than the Council, was our nephew who lived too far away to visit regularly without someone getting suspicious. He was planning on staying with us for a good portion of the summer. Mischief, Mayhem, and Little Disaster were a scary combination, add in their much younger cousin and all hell would break loose. I was not looking forward to this summer's family reunion. Trying to keep that much power zipping around from being noticed by the 'normal' family members was more than I could deal with, especially when everyone kept asking me when I was going to get married.  
  
"If they break any of my cold frames, they're going to be fixing them before they leave." Parvarti laughed at my tone. I had spent more than a week making those things and wasn't about to fix them when someone else broke them. Not to mention that I didn't have any pieces of glass big enough to replace a single pane. If there was anything broken, it would have to be mended the hard way-with magic.  
  
There was an almost silent flapping of wings as a large born owl swooped through the door, backwinging to land on the table behind Parvarti. My sister jumped in surprise, owls were uncommon messengers around here, and not even the Wizards' Council had much access to them. She recovered quickly, untying the message scroll and handing it to me. On the seal was some sort of crest, a shield quartered, and within each quarter was a figure that I couldn't quite make out. I broke the wax and unrolled the parchment.   
  
  
  
Dear Ms. Winterwind,  
  
The lack of formal magical education in your area has come to the attention of the British Ministry of Magic and we would like to extend an offer of scholarship for you and one other member of the Order of the Silver Dragons to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We realize that you have a young daughter and although she has three years before she would normally be accepted to the school, the board of governors have agreed to accept her early if you choose to bring her. We await your reply.  
  
Sincerely,  
  
Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster  
  
Parvarti was looking over my shoulder. "Interesting offer, the two of you could actually learn some formal magic for once."  
  
"Foolish wand waving you mean," I replied sourly, looking at the list of equipment that students were supposed to bring. Wands, ick! Athames were almost as bad, but at least the knives had other uses. "Both of us would stick out like sore thumbs, I'm thirty and Zan's not even going to be nine until Samhain. Hogwarts isn't a college Parvarti. It's full of adolescent human git."  
  
"You're starting to sound like Catha. She still hates humans even though she's stuck as one," my younger sister laughed. Catha's dislike was apparent even to those who don't believe in other races.  
  
Another crash, louder and with sounds of something breaking that wasn't glass. *Oh damn, not again…* 


End file.
